Oiu Oiu Paris,it feels like visiting an old friend.
Funny, Italy feels like Italy, Spain feels like Spain etc., but being in Paris makes me really feel like I’m in Europe. It’s not just the buildings and beautiful lay out of the city, it’s the people, so chic, so cool, so beautifully and elegantly dressed, I could say so bloody arrogant, but would like to be nice and refer to them as having ‘attitude’ , a whole lot and not always the best attitude, but attitude all the same. It feels like Europe.
I’m learning to order a petite plate of...

Sept. 11: Arrived last night and managed to find my way to my hotel near Paris airport. It was a low-budget deal, more like a youth hostel, but it had a good bed and a good restaurant—all I needed after flying all night and a 6-hour time change. Slept the sleep of the dead and got up at 6 a.m. to head back to the train station at the airport. Managed to use my limited French to find the right train and buy a pain au chocolate (croissant filled with chocolate cream) for breakfast. Discovered that it costs 70 cents to use the bathroom at the...

Yes, as they say in the classics, 'Paris is always a good idea'.
Off to Abu Dhabi shortly and provided I am not swept off my feet by some gorgeous, hunky Arabian Prince whilst there, by this time tomorrow morning, I should be negotiating the Paris Metro in search of my new abode for the next 5 days.
Watch this space ………..

Dear all,
Well we are spending our last night in Paris. By this time tomorrow, Sunday we should be getting ready to board our flight home. Tomorrow we are planning to empty out our bags and repack, throwing out unwanted weight.
But we have not stopped. Thursday we did a walking tour of Paris. We visited the Louvre and now know a lot more about early Greek art and painting up to 1885. Then we ventured on the Seine river for a short cruise for lunch at the Eiffle tower. We skipped a repeat visit to the Notre Dame Catherdral having spent 2...

Dear all,
Well the adventure is nearly at an end. We have moved hotels for the last time and now settled in. The previous Paris hotel were full so we couldn't stay on. We are in an old hotel, probably an old house but our room is comfortable, with air conditioning, bathroom and separate toilet, a real luxury. We are only 10 meters from the underground metro. We have been out exploring on that today to see where we need to be tomorrow to do a tour around Paris. We think we are brave as everything in the Metro is written in French so have to...

There was little doubt we were very happy to arrive in Paris after such a sometimes difficult journey from Georgia. The flight itself was good it was the airport misinformation that was the problem.
Arrival and customs procedures at CDG were easy as was getting a taxi for the short run to our hotel. But then it was another 'Deja vu' experience, just like in Tbilisi. As unbelievable as it would seem we once again had a driver who got us lost. Just brilliant !
We spent the short stopover repacking for road travelling, picking up our lease car...

This morning everyone was up early as we had to have ourbags out at 6:45 am, after breakfast we checked that our luggage was out and then set off at 8:00 am on the coach to Amsterdam. We surprised everyone by wearing our Red European Escape 2018 t-shirts. We were definately noticed, everyone thought they were a great idea.
We went out in the country side heading North with a French tour guide - who had the loveliest of accents but giggled a lot, we stopped around 10:00 am for a comfort stop and morning tea and then it was onto Belgium for...

This morning after another wonderful breakfast we got ready to go on our Tour of the Louvre although it was only half a day - we did get to see some of the wonderful pieces of art and sculptures that the Louvre has. To do the Louvre properly it would take you a year or more to have a good look at every piece and artifact stored there.
Our guide was a wonderful man who had studied art and he took the time to explain to us what the artist was trying to say in the work, we saw a lot of religious art that was to be expected of course, he also...

This morning we had a lovely breakfast at the Hotel before setting off to do a bus tour of the city. Although we had been on bus tours on our first days in Paris this one was specific for APT, we did see a lot of what we had seen previously, but we did stop at the Eiffel tower and got another close up view from the other side - alas it was closed due to a strike - in relation to the online ticketing system that was causing longer line ups. What is it about us and strikes!!
We stopped for coffee at a little cafe right near Napoleon's Tomb at...

This morning we had a lazy morning - packing the bags and cleaning the BNB. We had Brunch at our favourite Pub/Restaurant Bolivar for our final meal. After a wonderful breakfast we headed back to the unit to finalise packing and waiting to meet Sandrine to say au revoir, and get the cab to the hotel to join our tour.
We managed to get to the hotel (Hotel Collectionneur) without any drama, no crashes, no fires and no strikes. There we met the lovely Evelin our cruise director and went to our rooms, unfortunately we will be missing one of our...

Today we decided to do our own thing in gay Paris. We started the day on the Metro and headed into the city centre, we have booked for a tour of the Notre Dame. Although the cathedral looks very similar to the one in Riems, this one does have its own stories and history.
Notre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) is one of the largest and best known churches, it is of the Gothic style with 2 bell towers, it has been ransacked and parts destroyed over the centuries and rebuilt and is currently having restoration work done, in the 1800's Victor...

This morning was an early start as we were picked up at 7:20 for our small group Champagne Tour - Stephanie our tour guide was a lovely lady! There were only 6 of us on the tour and we learnt a lot about the Champagne making process. The other couple were from Atlanta Georgia, USA. They were a lot of fun! The drive to Reims takes approximately an hour and a half, and it is lovely countryside, we did see the turnoff to Eurodisney, we did not end up going as Tracey has hurt her leg...... not enough alcohol!!
We arrived at Riems and the first...